Editor-in-Chief of Israel’s leading “Makor Rishon” newspaper, Hagai Segal recently visited the Midrasha HaChassidit, and this article was published in his Makor Rishon column on June 30, 2023.
The head of a Kollel for Avreichim (married Yeshiva students) in the North of Israel sent me a copy of a document showing the different government payments that Torah institutions received during June. Sure enough, last week the Kollel received a bank transfer for government stipends of 819 NIS for each married Kollel student. They received 662 NIS in the previous month, before the government budget was passed, meaning that with all the big fuss, the increase was just 157 NIS. In the media, they said that each Avreich would receive over 1,000 shekels, but that actually applies only to Hesder Yeshivot. For Haredi Kollel students the stipend is just 819 NIS. By the way, according to the document, the payment was not backdated to the start of 2023, as per the budget law. To date, the money promised has not been paid into the bank accounts of Torah institutions. Perhaps next month.
In Beitar-Illit, the second largest Haredi city in Israel, I was hosted this week at a Yeshiva whose graduates will probably not be depending on student stipends after they marry: the Netzach Education Network’s Midrasha HaChassidit, a “protected zone” of core curriculum learning within the Haredi community. Established almost 10 years ago, and frequently the object of media interest, but to mark the end of the school year and the accusations that the Haredim are responsible for the destruction of the State, it is worth discussing. We all need some good news from time to time.
The first good news is that this Netzach high school is not on summer break. Its classrooms are still full of students. We interrupted a 9th grade Hebrew grammar lesson, and the students stood up to welcome the school principal and his guest! The 11th grade students were occupied with a challenging lesson on probability. In the Beit Midrash, we met a pair of 12th grade students preparing for their matriculation exam in mathematics, taking place the next day. Many of the students had chosen to undertake the challenging 5-point curriculum in math, and also in computer science and English. Next week they will be submitting their projects in civics, and at the end of next week they will take a matric examination in Chassidut based on the holy book “Tanya”.
To be clear, these students look like every other boy of their age in Beitar: they have sidelocks, black kippot, white shirts, dark pants. They learn Torah until the afternoon, and then they learn general subjects. The school corridors are as shiny clean and silent as an English school in the 19th century! “We do have some problems”, admits the head of the Midrasha, Rabbi Menachem Bombach, but I suspect that many Israeli high school principals today would be happy to swap their problems for his. Even the walls here reflect a love of learning; there is no graffiti (as found in many other schools) but a display of photographs of nature taken by one of the school’s graduates, and press cuttings from the (Haredi) newspaper “HaMevasser”.
Rabbi Bombach, who “made Aliyah” at age 20 from Meah Shearim to the State of Israel, is today 46 and a successful revolutionary. His geographical and ideological neighbors are not at all enthusiastic about his pedagogical ventures, but the fact that his Yeshiva High School is located in the heart of Beitar is proof that they those around him are getting used to the idea, and tolerate his personal magic. He projects enthusiasm and sincerity. This is a “boutique seminary”, he explains, with just 90 students, but the foundation stone of the Netzach Educational Network with 15 schools in the Greater Jerusalem area with 1,450 students this year, and 1,700 registered for next year. By 2030, he hopes they will have 20-25 schools, and not just in the Jerusalem area.
Who are the parents who send their children to these schools? “Mainstream Chassidim, not families with kids at risk. Torah Jews who want their children to integrate into the wider world, or those who recognize that their son is not suited to learning Torah every day of his life.”
“Will you also produce Rabbis here?”
“Possibly. They will not stay as mainstream Haredim – they have a hybrid identity. They identify with the Haredi community but they understand that life is complicated. We want to establish a new breed of religious leaders who can also be academics, doctors, climate scientists…”
He is happy to see that he already has competition. The ultra-conservative Haredi community in Beit Shemesh has set up an education network that is similar to his, and they are not the only ones. It was reported in “The Marker” this week that the Belz Chassidim are returning to their plan to introduce core curriculum subjects, frozen on the eve of the last Israeli elections.
“Chassidim will teach us Torah”, jokes Rabbi Bombach, referring to the widest possible definition of Torah. “I believe that by 2050 they will have no other choice. Either they will give up or they will have to rethink the Haredi dream, because there has been no new vision since the Chazon Ish (who advocated full-time Yeshiva learning). The infinite demand for receiving subsidies is not proportionate, not fair and not realistic. If we do not become educated and become partners, the Torah world will fade away.”